US Gamer - Former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, one of the most influential figures in the video games industry, has died at the age of 85. We look back on the man, his life, and his impact on our favorite hobby.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa recently sat down with Nikkei to discuss his approach to leading the company through the current Switch era, as well as what influences past presidents like Satoru Iwata and Hiroshi Yamauchi had on him.
nothing wrong with him per say but he just feels kinda lifeless compared to Iwata and lacks the tough guy almost Yakuza vibe Yamauchi gave off
This guy is a penny pincher and has no love of gaming. It is obvious in the half assed ports he is pushing. Iwata we miss you.
That's according to late Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, anyway.
BS from Nintendo ....obviously the arrogant nintnedo gathered the best of the western (only) devs to develop games for an underpowered (even from that time)) child centered console ....the result was that Japanese devs (who were unmatched in the game making) allied with the far more respectful to artists , Sony , and ultimately destroyed the Nintedo BS -only-Mario-only Zelda-console .....the thing is that Sony, ironically partenered some of the lesser known devs of the time form west to develop games (-Crash Bandicoot Twisted metal ,Kula world ,Disruptor )and destroyed again Nintendo even in their own strategy
The N64 was not underpowered, it was quite a bit more powerful, the issue was using expensive low storage cartridges compared to CD roms.
IF nintendo had adopted CDs for n64, it would have been nearly twice as powerful as the PS1 (especially the GPU). However, they were too scared their kiddy audience would scratch their CD games up.
The Playstation was by far the most underpowered console of that generation, even the Saturn blew it away.
🤣 How out of touch?
N64 lost to Playstation because PS had way more and better games and I do believe that the controller had something to do with it as well.
The first gen of gamers were growing up and wanted to play more mature games. It's still what separates Nintendo and Sony.
Yep - and Nintendo wanted to stick with cartridges too, back then FMV/CGI sequences were a big thing.
the reason nintendo lost was because they chose to stick with expensive carts over cd rom. New games on ps were $50 and N64 were $60-$65. Also the Disc held more information than the carts. It was cheaper to produce games on PS than N64. PS also had a mix of genres from kid games to mature content.
I remember buying WWF Smackdown for $39.99 at Walmart in early 2000 (still have the receipt), so some games were even cheaper on PlayStation.
PS1 games were actually only $40, which made the N64 game prices even worse. PS2 was when they raised it to $50. Then $60 for PS3. Then DLC came...ugh...
Anyways, back on point! I had a massive collection of games at age 12 and my N64 owning friend had hardly any games. Poor kid. Even renting the N64 games were way more expensive! So back to your main point, all in all, PlayStation won because of how inexpensive and how expansive CD-ROM was.
yup exactly. I only had like 6 games total for n64 because they price. PS had greatest hits for $20 i remember.
Replies(1)I remember Hiroshi - he was so old and wouldn't budge on anything. Sony absolutely blindsided Nintendo after the big N stabbed Sony in the back.
FF7 was a turning point and hurt Nintendo a lot. But PS1 was a classic gaming machine - massive library of hits.
The icing came a little later when Sega games started coming to PlayStation consoles.
Nintendo's third president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, was famously disinterested in video games, preferring to play more traditional Japanese board games. Despite this, he's also known for modernising Nintendo and transforming the video game market.
well, even now their policies are bullshit, here's 5 examples:
1 - youtube restrictions and copyright claims
2 - nintendo labo existence
3 - selling an unfinished underpowered console overpricing it
4 - porting wiiU games on switch instead of selling the wiiU at 50$
5 - willing to do cross platform like if it is very important, same problem that microsoft has.
Still I think that pales in in comparison of locking controller functionality to a sub to their online service. Thats and voice chat of course. They make amazing games but I think they know this and it gives them liberty to do some very odd/abrasive things.
Not sure exactly how LABO existing and doing cross play are bad policies. Especially that last one.
1. I agree, non consumer friendly and short sighted decision.
2. It's for kids and it's an engineering/programming toy. I don't know why its existence bothers you.
3. I could argue that the Switch is the most powerful handheld console ever made for half the price of a phone. Agree to disagree.
4. That's taking a huge business loss and no company would do that. Wii U failed for a good reason, would be dumb to continue to manufacture at a loss. I personally wanted them to port those games, and it gave me a reason to give my wii u to a friend with children because I knew they would.
5. I think any time a game offers cross platform between consoles, that's a win for us gamers. Doesn't mean you have to get into the fan and company drama of it.
1. Whatever, not a huge deal and it's their right
2. Yes, because trying something different and against the norm is bs
3. Unfinished? Underpowered? Meanwhile providing some of the best games so far this gen
4. Porting games over like Playstation and Xbox, nothing new there
5. Upsetting extreme fanboys by providing developers with what they asked for and would like...yeah, huge problem for Nintendo
How about locking up third party developers to make only three games a year on NES and can not make any othet game on other console gaming platforms like Sega, SNK , NEC?
Hoe about price fixing their games for decades?
How about threatening Toys R Us with stock shortages if they sell Sega Genesis and Turbo Grafix consoles and games?
Wow did you go back far enough? I'm sure if you go back 30 years for every company you'd find some horrible policies. And during that same time period Nintendo almost single handedly saved the home console business. They earned that swollen head. (yes it is baby though).
I'm pretty sure that if you track back far enough in your own life you'd find the same kinda BS decisions
@Fathertime4464
We are talking about Yamauchi here and of course he dates way back.
Its not about Iwata or Reggie, dude.
R.I.P and may Christ be with you